Invisible
by smallearthcat
Summary: The stupid necklace was driving Rodney crazy. John/Rodney slash.


The stupid necklace was driving Rodney crazy, he was pretty sure. Sheppard had found it on their latest offworld trip, and naturally, instead of just leaving it where it was, he'd picked it up and put it on. And then he'd promptly disappeared. Ronon and Teyla had drawn their weapons and surrounded Rodney as best they could in the blink of an eye, while Rodney stared, dumbfounded, at where the Colonel had been seconds before.

Only, then Sheppard's voice had come out of nowhere. "Whoa, guys, what's with the weapon-pointing?"

Teyla and Ronon looked confused at hearing Sheppard, but for Rodney, excitement took hold because had an inkling of what might be going on. "Ah, Colonel, would you mind removing that necklace?"

John was visible again in a flash, and put his hands up as Teyla and Ronon's weapons instinctively snapped onto him. "Just me. Nothing to shoot at here." He waved his hands in a vaguely non-threatening gesture, and their weapons were barely lowered before Rodney shot out from behind them and snatched the necklace right out of John's hand. "Hey, that's mine!"

"Yes, yes, and you can have it back once I've completed an extensive battery of tests on it to figure out how it _turned you invisible_."

Rodney was sure the grin on his face must have been as manic as the one that crossed Sheppard's when his words registered. "I was invisible? Cool! Let me just-" He made grabby hands in Rodney's direction, but Rodney clutched the necklace protectively to his chest.

"After a few tests. We want to make sure there are no adverse effects before you go decide it's fine to go playing with it in your usual reckless manner."

John looked at him critically. "If you wanted a turn, all you had to do was ask."

Rodney snorted deprecatingly but didn't relax his grip even a bit. "Nonsense. Besides, there'll be plenty of time for us both to try it out later."

With that sorted, and the two of them grinning at each other again, they all headed back toward the gate, Rodney hurrying them along, eager to get back to his lab.

That, of course, was days ago, when he'd been excited about the possibilities, the potential applications for such awesome technology. Before he'd realized that the damn thing didn't have one bit of technology to it. No, it was obviously powered by some sort of voodoo magic, because no matter what tests Rodney ran on it, or what theories he came up with, he could not for the life of him figure out how it made invisibility possible.

It didn't refract the light around the wearer, or change the wearer's cell pigment to blend in with the surroundings, or any of the other increasingly unlikely theories Rodney could think of. If Rodney believed in such a thing, he would have just called it magic and been done with it. Magic, of course, was a patently ridiculous explanation, but he just didn't have anything else. Nothing whatsoever. It pissed Rodney the fuck off.

His testing finally came to an end, due to no design of his own, after another two days, right when he was considering chucking the necklace at the nearest minion. Sheppard came in then, as he had been doing every afternoon since he'd found the necklace, ready to annoy Rodney until he seriously contemplated handing it over just to get some peace. Today, he took one look at Rodney, and instead of asking how it was going or when he could have his latest toy back, he walked right up and plucked it out of Rodney's fingers.

Rodney squawked at him and tried to snatch it away, but Sheppard had slipped it on and moved out of range quickly enough that Rodney caught nothing but air. It didn't matter that he'd been seconds away from ridding himself of the necklace before Sheppard came in, because Rodney needed it back, and he'd never get any more tests done if Sheppard had decided he was done waiting for it.

"Colonel, I'm not done with that." Rodney stood very still, vainly hoping that he'd manage to catch a glimpse of movement.

"Yes you are, Rodney." Rodney lunged in the direction of his voice and missed. "Enough lab tests. It's time for some real-world testing."

Rodney was tempted to just let it go, pronounce his testing through since, as far as he could tell, there were no side effects to wearing it, even for longer periods of time, but he _needed_ to figure this out. "I don't think- mmph!"

Rodney was startled when Sheppard's body thumped into him, but he was positively shocked when he felt a pair of lips being pressed to his own. "Come on, Rodney, don't you think we could come up with some fun ways to test it out? You know, ease into it before trying any tactical maneuvers."

His hands were moving to more distracting places than where they'd landed on Rodney's shoulders, and yes, Rodney could definitely think of a whole lot more interesting things to do than running tests here in his lab, alone. "You're on. But you are _not_ going to be the only one wearing it. We're switching off."

Sheppard just laughed.


End file.
